The Akali agitation in Punjab easily find a parallel with the Zionist slogan of a Jewish majority in the state of Israel, even if it means driving out the
For revolutionary Marxists the issue is not and cannot be academic. What role is the working class to play in this movement - this is the key question facing
The (pro-Soviet) Communist Party of India, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have come up with solutions that are in line with the basic nature of
Since the dismissal of the Akali Dal government in the Punjab state of India in 1980 the Sikhs, who form a large part of the state population, have been increasingly active in pursuance of their demands for increased political and religious rights.
The Akali Dal Party is the political expression of the Sikh population in Punjab.
Its political programme is based on the 'Anandpur Sahib' resolution which was formulated in 1973, and subsequently endorsed by the Akali Dal in 1977 and an
All-India Akali Conference in 1978.
The general aims of the resolution are:
Propagation of the Sikh way of life and removal of atheism and un-Sikh
Maintaining the feeling of a separate independent identity of the Sikh Panth
- and creation of an environment in which the 'National Expression' of the Sikhs can be full and satisfactory.
Banishing illiteracy, untouchability, crimination which are contrary to the teachings of the great Gurus. (India Today
The further religious and political aims include for the uniformity of the Sikh religious practices and for Sikhs to control access to their holy places, for the reintegration into Punjab of Sikh areas in other states and wider powers for the local
Over the last few months this agitation has become increasingly violent, with gun
Sikhs and Hindus, armed attacks and the killing of the chief of
Talks between the Akali leaders and the Indira Gandhi government have failed to reach any agreement.
The following article from the May-June issue of Proletarian Politics, journal of the Communist League, Indian section the position of the Indian Fourth Internationalists in response to this agitation, and the demand for an independent Sikh state, a 'Khalistan'.
The last few months have seen a sharp increase in the tempo of the Akali agitation. The bourgeois press has quickly linked it with the Assam agitation.
Sections of the left have done the same.
But there is no serious basis for making this link. The Assam movement, for all its contradictions and problems, reflects the struggle of an oppressed nationality.
The same cannot be said of the Akali
The Akali movement is not new.
Even in 1947, when India won independence, the Akalis wanted to be a separate party in the negotiations over the transfer
But at that time their base was too weak, they essentially represented the Sikh commercial bourgeoisie, and depended upon the urban petty bourgeoibrought a powerful Jat-Sikh lobby to the fore. The Sikh kulaks rallied behind the
Akali Dal. The Dal also changed tacties.
It put forward slogans that seemed beneficial to all sections of the landowning
Sikh peasantry.
In this way the Sikh
Sikh peasantry behind them.
A second, and at times much more powerful, weapon the Akalis possess is the weapon of religion. In fact it would be wrong to say that the Akalis represent a nationalist current.
Their appeal is and caste-based disof the Fourth International, summarises chiefly to Punjabi Sikhs, not to Punjabis as a whole. But this is also their strength. Particularly since Haryana was separated from Punjab, religious appeals have made renewed headway in the province.
The Akali movement has therefore raised diverse types of demands. ious demands have been put forward, including a special radio centre and so on.
However, political demands are at the heart of the present agitation. 'theory' of the 'Sikh nation' is being erected. The Anandpur Sahib resolucion spelled out the reasons. nation' is to get wide provincial autonomy. The central government is to have Communications and Currency, the rest to the provincial government.
At bottom this is an attempt by the Sikh bourgeoisie to gain power vis-a-vis the more powerful sections of the ruling
In order to ensure that this slogan does not in any way play into the hands of the toiling masses some further demands are being raised. Tohra (an Akali leader and supporter of the extremist Bhindranwale), in a statement published in October 1982, stated that voting rights should be restricted to property owners. It is worth mentioning that in the Punjab 43 percent of the population live below the poverty g demanded that a Sire merity it is ever more stridentl must be assured in Punjab. One can these parties. The CPI(M)'s longstanding link with the Akali Dal is well known. The CPI(M) leader Surjeet even acts as a go-between for the Akalis and the central
The CPI stand is more ambiguous. In some respects, overt communalist tones of the Akalis, it has put up some resistance. This reflects the mixed social base of the CPI in the Punjab. The CPI(M) and the Akalis have more or less the same social base, while the CPI has rather stronger links with the working class and the 'Harijans' (untouch-
But even so, the CPI leader Satyapal Dang came up with the slogan that what is needed for Punjab and India is a dialogue between the Akalis and the central government. So, the task of the proletariat is to act as negotiator between two sectors of the Indian bourgeoisie.
As long as such misleaders continue to dominate the working class they will serve as cannon fodder for the bour-
The only way to combat the Akalis is to put forward in practical terms the unity of Punjabi culture, the unity of interest among the Punjabi workers, agricultural labourers and poor peasants (both Hindu and Sikh) against the bourgeoisie - whether industrial, commercial or rural, whether Hindu or Sikh. equally necessary to struggle for the protection of the democratic economic rights of migrant labourers.
Finally, it is necessary to explain how the accepted definition of secularism, by giving equal state patronage to all religions, bolsters communalism. In fact, it is to be noted that while a large part of the leadership knows that to gain power at the provincial level they require a good number of non-Sikh votes, and thus behaves cautiously at times, Congress(I) is busy fanning the flames of communalism.
The intensification of communal disharmoney is, in fact, part and parcel of bourgeois strategy. At the level of political parties it is not only open religious/communal organisations like Akali Dal that are responsible. The Congress(I) must be seen as the party that is involved in communalism all over the country.
The left, especially the revolutionary left, must join together to resist communalism, while recognising clearly that the political basis of communalism today is bourgeois strategy. In Punjab, to fight the Akalis, it is not enough to explain their class basis. It is necessary to hit at the religious ideology with which they cement their multi-class Sikh bloc.
The role of women in the finally lost because the unions stupidly backed the management in its attempt to bring in part-time work.
Another example is the fight of the w